"I think you are unjust to me in this matter. Listen! When I married Daphne I was aware that she would want to finance her entire family: in fact, it was one of the inducements to marrying me which I laid before her. For that purpose, to save her the embarrassment of constantly coming to me for supplies, I settled upon her a private allowance of--what do you think?" "Out with it! No striving after effect with _me_, my man!" was the reply of his unimpressionable audience. "I gave her a thousand a year," said Juggernaut. "That should have been sufficient," said Mrs Carfrae composedly. "But do not be ostentatious about it. You could well afford the money." "Well, she had spent most of that year's allowance in six months," continued Juggernaut, disregarding these gibes--"on her father's curate, the younger children's education, and so forth--and she wanted more." "What age is this brother?" "Twenty, I think. He is up at Cambridge, and wants to get into the Army as a University candidate. At present he appears to be filling in his time philandering with a tobacconist's daughter. The tobacconist's bill for moral and intellectual damage came to five hundred pounds. Before writing the cheque, I stipulated--" "You would!" said the old lady grimly. --"That I should be permitted to make a few investigations on my own behalf. Young Vereker is a handsome, fascinating rascal, with about as much moral fibre as a Yahoo. He was a good deal franker in his admissions to me than he had been to his sister--" "Ay, I once heard you cross-examining a body," confirmed Mrs Carfrae. --"And on the completion of my inquiries I paid the money down on the nail. It was the only thing to do." "Did you tell Daphne the whole story?" "No. I should hate to dispel her illusions. She loves her brothers and sisters." "There is no need to excuse yourself, John Carr. I knew fine that you would not tell her. Instead, you glowered at her, and read her a lecture about extravagance and improvidence. She tried to look prim and penitent, but danced down the stair the moment she got the door shut behind her. Now, mannie, listen to me. This is no light charge you have taken on yourself--to rule a wild, shy, impulsive taupie like that. You cannot contain the like with bit and bridle, mind. I have been one myself, and I know. There is just one thing to do. She must learn to _love_ you, or the lives of the pair of you will go stramash!" Juggernaut's old friend concluded this homily with tremendous emphasis, and there was a long silence. Then the man drew his chair a little closer. "How can I teach her?" he asked humbly. "I have no _finesse_, no attractiveness. Do you think I--I am too old for her?"